Sep 17, 2009

Interesting Psak from Rav Elyashiv: Gimmicks for fundraising

The newspaper Ba'Kehilla is quoting Rav Elyashiv as having said to the board of the Vaad HaRabonnim tzedakka fund that there is nothing wrong with using gimmicks and "stories of yeshuos" in their fundraising efforts.

(obviously this is only a quote from a newspaper article, and they probably were only told what he said and did not actually hear it from Rav Elyashiv himself, so whether he actually said this or not, as always, should be taken with a grain of salt)

I have previously heard from big rabbonim that for the purpose of teaching a lesson, giving mussar, etc. one can make up stories - in other words all those gedolim stories you hear, or stories of simple people who did something great, that get passed around to learn a lesson from, those stories might or might not have actually happened.

With tzedakka it might be different, because you are enticing someone to give you money using false pretenses. So the psak is a bit surprising, if true. I guess tzedakka trumps everything and aside actual deceit and theft, maybe there is room for leniency...

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UPDATE: I just saw this article in Kikar.net that says the paper was pulled and reprinted. As soon as it was discovered that they ran this "quote" from Rav Elyashiv, representatives of the Vaad HaRabbonim (associated with Rav Elyashiv) contacted them immediately and told them to not allow such a false quote to be printed in Rav Elyashiv's name.

So, while it might be ok to make up stories for inspiration and mussar, it is still not ok to make up stories to deceive people into donating money.

Can someone please tell me why the "Kupa is always empty" but when it comes to a competing campaign around Yom Tov there is all of a sudden a generous double giver?Maybe he should save his money for the other times when the kupa is "empty".

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About Me

I am a regular Joe with a Yeshiva background. I learned in Telshe Yeshiva, Heichal HaTorah (R' Tzvi Kushelevsky), and a now defunct Halacha Kollel. I have semicha from R' Zalman Nechemia Goldberg and kaballa in Shechita from Dayan Schwartz of Kehillas HaYeraim (Chomas HaKashrus). I have a college degree in Finance from Touro College and am also a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer.
My wife and I, with our 8 children, ben porat yosef (knayna hara), live in Eretz Yisrael.